Br4in

Bill Bernbach was a gifted, intuitive persuader and the father of the creative revolution in advertising. He said, “At the heart of an effective creative philosophy is the belief that nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action….”

Jokes and insights, it turns out, have a lot in common. We can learn something from the comparison. Both jokes and insights are defined by their effect. A joke makes us laugh. Otherwise, it’s not a joke. An insight gives us the pleasure of a surprising truth. Otherwise, it’s not an insight.

A formula for jokes or insights doesn’t exist, but every good joke and every good insight has three qualities: They are unexpected, provocative, and true.

Unexpected

We’ve long known that jokes involve a setup and a surprise. A traditional definition of a joke and one that the noted humorist Sigmund Freud used is “bewilderment succeeded by illumination.”

A man gets a call from his doctor. The doctor says, “Thank god I’ve reached you. I have bad news and worse news.”

“Oh dear, what’s the bad news?” asks the patient.

The doctor replies, “The results of your tests came back saying you have only 24 hours to live.”

“That’s terrible,” says the patient. “How can the news possibly be worse?”

The doctor replies, “I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday.”

Insights require the same setup and surprise, the same sort of “bewilderment succeeded by illumination.” I suspect that more jokes and insights fail from a weak setup than from a week punch line. Insufficient bewilderment diminishes illumination.

Provocative

Both a joke and an insight juxtapose the incongruous to make us stop and think.

An old man was sitting on a park bench staring at a teenage boy who had spiked yellow, red, green, and orange hair.

The young man says, “What’s the matter, old man…didn’t you do anything wild in your day?”

“Well…,” says the old man, “made love to a parrot once. Thought you might be my son.”

True

The element of truth gives a joke its edge. Truth seen from a new angle gives an insight its power.

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks: “So, why the long face?”

Persuasion requires an insight into the target, a fresh perspective that is unexpected, provocative, and true.

Where can we find that?

The reward we promise doesn’t have to have been never promised before, or not promised by alternative actions. We just need to associate that reward more closely with our recommended action than it is associated with any alternative action. If the reward we associate with the action we recommend is both motivating and unique, that’s great. But if we have to choose, we are much better off with a motivating reward than a unique reward. Remember: Many unique rewards are not promised by others because they are not motivating.

Persuasion is about fulfilling desires, not changing desires. To be successful in persuasion, we have to talk about what the target wants. When we stop trying to change what people want and instead try to show people how to get what they want, our message becomes dramatically different. Our persuasive attempts become less strident, preachy, and moralistic, and more focused on the desires of the target. Only then will the target listen.

| Functional | Emotional | Social | Sensory

Before | | | |

During | | | |

After | | | |